Skin
by woobloo97
Summary: Five times Elena has seen Damon naked.


A/N: Yeah. Melodrama. Kind of my thing.

Anyway: read it. And tell me if you liked it. Reviews are so very welcome and wonderful.

Prompted by fluffyfrolicker over on LJ: _i like you so much better when you're naked,/ i like me so much better when you're naked_

_I._  
She's not exactly awake, but not asleep either, just unaware of time.

People float through her head. Sensations. Her parents. Jenna. Ric. Jeremy. Bonnie. Caroline. Matt. Stefan. Damon. Important people.

She rolls over, reveling in the warmth of her bed.

She doesn't think about tomorrow; such thinking always wakes her up, and she's enjoying this, the sleepiness.

See, this time doesn't count, as you very well know.

She can see him, cocky, smirking, naked, soapy, and this isn't the time to feel irritated this is the time to savor it savor the memory...

She feels freer somehow, like she's flying, soaring above the clouds, toes skimming the gray, and they're naked and flying and it's glorious.

(the next day she calls him, to discuss further stefan-finding-saving plans, and they snipe at each other over a minute detail in the itinerary.)

_II._  
She comes over later, to see Stefan, yes, but also to check on Damon; she suspects he will be drunk again, mourning, wallowing. She'd say he's taking it too hard, but if she spent hundreds of years obsessing over someone, only to brutally discover their indifference, she'd probably be drunk too.

He has his shirt off, sitting on the floor, bottle in hand. He looks up at her, and waves the bottle dramatically her way.

"Hey," she says, and hopes her voice strikes the right chord between empathy and non-pity.

"Stefan-" he says- "has gone to bed." Each word is said deliberately; she suspects he's working very hard just to communicate this simple message.

She crouches down on the floor next to him. "Damon," she says cautiously, "exactly how much alcohol have you had?"

He looks up at her, and she realizes he has tears on his face. "Oh, Damon," she whispers, and without thinking, reaches out, pulling him to her. He buries his head in her neck, and she strokes his bare bicep, murmuring something about time and heartache.

He's vulnerable in a way that he must never be unless truly sloshed, and after a while, he does pass out in her arms. He's too heavy for her to carry, and somehow it feels wrong to go get Stefan (because she knows she'd be pissed if she was shown to anybody, especially a rival- is that the right word? if she was passed out drunk). So she lays a blanket over him, and strokes his hair a couple times, and she feels a surge of protectiveness.

(they never talk about it, never: she's not sure he remembers it.)

_III._  
The first time she walks in on him naked, it's a couple weeks after Rose's death.

She may or may not be a little drunk; she, Bonnie and Caroline had been having a "girls night" that perhaps involved an unspecified amount of wine.

He smirks at her, and for a second, she does check him out; it's perhaps a second longer than she would if she was completely sober.

"Really, Damon?"

"Hey, you know what they say about knocking."

"Do you do this often? Sit around... you know..."

"Nekkid?" He grins, pulling on a pair of pants.

She can't help it; the situation's ridiculous, and she covers up her mouth, trying to hide the smile that she can tell is filling up her face.

He comes closer, still shirtless. "You reek of alcohol, young lady."

"I donot! I'm completely, you know, whatstheword..."

"Wasted?"

"Yes, wasted- no, no-" and then she's laughing and he's laughing at her and the whole thing dissolves in hilarity, she grasping for something to hold onto while doubled over, only finding Damon's arm, while he sniggers, calling her "wasted" and "teenage delinquent" and "little drunky drunk" and this goes on way longer than perhaps should be funny, but she sees no reason to stop laughing.

Stefan walks in, and he frowns, although he could be just amused, and Damon calls him "quizzical forehead" or something and Elena's rolling on the floor.

(stefan picks her up, swings her over his shoulder, and they kiss and make out and go have sex in his bedroom.)

_IV._  
They have sex three times that night, sometimes in a desperate I want you now fashion, sometimes in a tender, loving way, and sometimes in a perfect place between the two; she rolls her tongue over his, feels his cock hard inside her, and comes, gasping for air, only feeling him.

She runs her hands over him silently, feeling his skin, feeling his arms, feeling his face, touching, feeling, touching, feeling, feeling.

She doesn't know how this much feeling is possible; she's alive she's alive she's in love and she's alive and oh- oh- oh- she's alive.

She looks at him, his eyes, and he runs a finger across her cheek, then lunges for her, flips her over, kisses her until oh lord she can't breathe

oh oh

how has this never happened before this is all she's ever Damon's all she's ever

They kiss and they come and she can't tell if she feels tender or if she feels violent in her love, but either way, this is the most she's ever felt, she's nearly pretty certain.

(she knows he felt it too, knows him, but then the aftermath goes down and they don't even get that- one perfect night, posthumously killed.)

_V._  
Eventually one day, they will find each other again; they will lay together and they will feel the kindred that they must needs feel; they will lay skin on skin. She will feel that again, feel whole with Damon laying at her side, feel like someone loved in love, feel love, feel alive.

This will happen because she's never felt truly loved for herself, except with Damon, because he loves all of her every bit and she loves the way that feels on her skin.

Caroline once told her that Stefan loves the good in her, and Damon loves the bad; she can't remember when this was, but she remembers getting mad; she thinks it must have been while she was human, because she doesn't remember a fight. This isn't true, of course; she could, yes. if pressed, come up with an in depth analysis of their loves, and her love for them, but why would she do that. She burned the diary long ago, and life is for living.

And Damon is life, in a way Stefan never was, and so she lives with him, lives with him, skin on skin, burning to touch.

(this is life, you know.)


End file.
